Senator Russ Feingold has posted an update on the battle:

I’m pleased to announce that early this afternoon, Senate leaders threw in the towel on their plan to jam a Patriot Act reauthorization bill through the Senate before Thanksgiving. Bipartisan resistance to the tentative agreement reached by conference committee Republicans stopped them in their tracks. We will come back in December and have a real debate on the Patriot Act, and in the meantime, we can keep up pressure on the conferees to move closer to the unanimously supported Senate bill from this summer…

The delay we achieved today is only a temporary victory. To get my vote, the conference committee must follow the approach taken by the bill the Senate passed by unanimous consent this past summer. If it ignores the protections for innocent Americans we achieved in the Senate bill, I will do everything I can to stop the final bill.


Also, The New York Times story on the issue is out of date now, but still interesting.